Russia Signs Deal to Build Oil Rigs

The Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex Company (ISOICO) has said that it has signed an agreement with Russian shipyard Krasnye Barrikady (Red Barricades) for oil rig construction and technology transfer.

ISOICO Managing Director Hamid Rezaian said the agreement will allow his company to take advantage of the Russian firm’s facilities to produce certain equipment.

“We are ready to provide ISOICO with the necessary equipment thanks to financial and insurance support of the Russian government,” Krasnye Barrikady CEO Alexander Ilyichev (pictured) said.

The deal was signed earlier this month in Tehran where representatives of 80 leading Russian companies showcased their products in the biggest foreign display of the kind ever held in Iran.

Under the agreement, the two sides will jointly build rigs for exploration and production of hydrocarbons in the Persian Gulf waters.

“The construction cycle is planned not for one year, but for decades,” Ilyichev has told Russian media.

Ilyichev has said Iran was also interested in ordering new oil tankers for operation in the Caspian Sea.

Last month, Rezaian said his company was looking to the lifting of sanctions to unveil a series of grand projects in partnership with major world shipbuilders. Talks have been held with South Korean, Italian, Chinese, German and Turkmen companies to implement joint schemes.

Preliminary agreements have been reached with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and an MoU has been signed with Nordic Yards Wismar which is Germany’s biggest shipbuilder, Rezaian said.

Iran has a sprawling shipbuilding industry, chiefly devoted to constructing oil tankers and container ships as well as offshore structures.

The country owns the world’s largest fleet of oil supertankers consisting of 42 VLCCs, each able to carry 2 million barrels of oil.

Iran also held a conference in Tehran last month to lay out 50 oil and gas projects worth $30 billion for development through foreign investment.

The projects include a combination of brown and green fields as well as exploration blocks up for development. Iran plans to boost oil production to 5.7 million barrels a day and gas output to 1.4 billion cubic meters a day by 2021.